CWIX 2017: NATO Tests Cyber, Innovation and Adaptation

BYDGOSZCZ, POLAND – NATO Deputy Secretary General, Rose Gottemoeller, Polish Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of National Defence, Tomasz Szatkowski, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Denis Mercier, NATO Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee, Lieutenant General Steven M. Shepro, and NATO Commander Joint Force Training Centre, Major General Wilhelm Grün, welcomed NATO’s leading political and military bodies, the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee, to the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX) on June 22nd to discuss NATO’s continuous adaptation in a complex international security environment.

“All 29 Allies – and many more partners around the world – need to be able to operate seamlessly across a wide spectrum of activities and missions,” said the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, NATO’s Deputy Secretary-General. “And the exercise will help us do exactly that.”

CWIX features one thousand participants from 26 nations and 88 Commands, gathered to challenge assumptions and test NATO’s abilities to create an interoperable Alliance that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Interoperability is confidence that different systems will perform together properly when needed. In addition to greater efficiency, improving interoperability provides significant cost benefits to NATO nations as members pool and share resources. “Try. Fail. Fix. Try Again.” is the mentality at CWIX and it has proven to foster faster delivery of capabilities for deployment.

Consistent with NATO’s new cyber domain CWIX engineers and testers design capabilities which are interoperable. CWIX enables understanding and prepares nations to react to cyber-related issues as a federated Alliance.

“By federating national security centres on a classified NATO network, employing the Cyber Range for preliminary testing – and it is the first time it has ever been done – the exchange of information can be made possible to improve our common defence as well as integrate cyber effects provided voluntarily by Nations,” said General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.

NATO must also get the right information to the right people at the right time. In a multinational operation, this is a complex process that requires information from different platforms to be merged and analysed. CWIX emphasises the importance of interoperability to improve the exchange of information and situational awareness. Ultimately, this leads to faster decision making. And faster decision making provides commanders with an edge.

“It is my strong belief that CWIX demonstrates NATO at its best,” said Lieutenant General Steven M. Shepro, Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee. “The large number of participants from NATO bodies, Allied Nations and Partners underscores NATO’s adaptation and transformation.”

CWIX is managed by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, NATO’s home in North America, and hosted by the Joint Force Training Centre between June 12th and June 29th.